Shanghaied
by poe-of-nothing
Summary: AU...After a botched assasination attempt on his family Ichigo is forced into the Epsada, a group of elite assasins run by Aizen. Unfortunetly once you join the Espadas you can't leave. The one thing that Ichigo wants to do.
1. The Intruder

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach...yup...

Rated M- uh...mostly for the violence and language...and just to be on the safe side I guess...not that anyone really pays attention to the ratings now n' days

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Ichigo stretched and glanced at his finished stack of homework. He had worked almost an hour straight after dinner to get all of this done, it was so annoying how much they were assigning all of a sudden either all of them were having a bad day or some new regulation was having them all on their toes. He set his pencil down and took out his headphones. Turning his chair he stared at his door for a second and listened to the quiet. He hadn't heard anything from his sisters in a little while, the whole time his music had been on low yet nothing at all. Sure they could take care of themselves but it still made him wonder if they were alright. Normally he wouldn't have to worry, his dad was there to help them, but this week he was off getting his medical license renewed and wouldn't be back for another three days.

Standing up he walked to the door and opened it, looking up and down the hall he looked for his sisters for a second or two, "Yuzu? Karin?" he called out, it wasn't normal to have it this quiet, the television was usually on or something.

Listening for another second or two he slowly began to realize that…something wasn't quiet right. He couldn't exactly place it but for some reason he felt like something was off, he didn't know what yet but something. Moving quickly down the hall he stood at the top of the steps and listened. Nothing seemed off, just another quiet house but then he heard it. Just the tiniest of sounds, a soft creaking noise from someone in the kitchen and…muffled movements. Ichigo's body tensed, whoever it was they weren't Yuzu or Karin.

Quickly but carefully he maneuvered his way towards the kitchen, making sure to stay out of sight, he moved on the quietest boards until he could see what was going on. Very quickly he saw exactly what was going on. Yuzu and Karin were tied up on the floor, tight enough that even from here he could see that they were having trouble breathing. Standing in the kitchen searching through the drawers was a large man, muscular and short of bulky. He was large and looked more stupid and brawny than anything else. He was wearing all white and some…type of bone mask on his face, the jaw part. Instead of being scared like he probably should have been at 15 he was instead a little angry and extremely calm. This bastard had invaded his home and made Yuzu cry, his eyes narrowed, this man was paying dearly for that.

Moving quickly he crossed the floor and entered the kitchen. Normally he wasn't one to hit someone when there back was turned but this time he made an exception. Grabbing the first thing that came to hand he picked it up and faster than the man could turn slammed it over the back of his head, it was a very heavy cast-iron pan that Yuzu had used earlier. The man crumpled and fell to the floor. Going to his sisters Ichigo quickly untied them and un-gagged their mouths. "I-Ichigo! Wh-what's going on?" Yuzu whispered out frightened, tears streaming down her face.

Helping her stand he pushed both of them towards the stairs, "Upstairs now," he ordered, his eyes on the man who was slowly getting up, he hadn't expected the pan to incapacitate him just…give him some time.

Karin frowned, "We're not leaving you Ichigo!" she replied fiercely, turning and looking at him just as fierce as her words.

Ichigo normally would have been proud of his little sister, but not today, "That wasn't a request. Now move!" he snapped and shoved them this time.

Yuzu tugged on Karin's arm and after a second or two the quickly hurried up the stairs. "I'll kill them later," growled a voice, closer than Ichigo had anticipated.

Whipping around he glared at the man who now stood up and was cracking his neck and smirking at him, "Who the hell are you," Ichigo asked, voice surprisingly calm compared to the anger and slight nervousness that was growing inside of him.

Even the large man in front of him looked mildly confused for a second before he shrugged, "None of your business. You're going to die soon anyways. Don't blame me though, blame your father," the man said, cracking his knuckles and loosening himself up.

Ichigo tensed up, his father? What the hell was that supposed to mean. That thought was tossed to the back of his mind though as suddenly the large man threw a punch. Dodging it he naturally aimed a kick back, surprised when the large man caught it. His eyes widened for a second and he had no way of escaping the punch that came next. Nor could he do anything when the man threw him towards a wall. All he could do was protect what he could as he hit the wall with an almost sickeningly heavy thud. He didn't stay down for long though, rolling out of the way of the man's next attack. On his feet he reached for the nearest weapon, a knife.

Moving quickly he ducked under the man's next attack and stabbed him in the gut once, twice, a total of four times before with a swift kick Ichigo was slammed into the counter and dropped to the floor. The man grunted and yanked the knife from his stomach, "I'm going to rip you apart kid," he snarled and reached to grab the orange-haired nuisance.

The man managed to grab onto him but only for a second, Ichigo violently kicked the man in the stomach and when he loosened his hold Ichigo yanked himself free and back up a semi-safe distance. Panting a little he quickly scoured the kitchen for a second usable weapon to counter the man's sudden use of the knife he had just attacked with. Brown eyes landed on the drawer that contained all the knifes, if he remembered correctly there was a bread knife in there. It didn't take long for the large man to recover and as soon as he lunged to attack Ichigo dodged and hurried to the drawer. Yanking it open he pawed through the knives ignoring the fact he quickly cut his hand in his haste to find the right knife.

Finding it he pulled it out and faced his opponent. They stared at each other for a second. Carving knife for the intruder and for Ichigo a bread knife. Instead of being afraid Ichigo was calm, he wasn't afraid. No…here it was kill him or let the man go and kill his sisters. Ichigo was not going to let this man harm his family. Taking a deep breath he tensed for a second and then attacked. He didn't expect to get a very good hit. So when the man moved aside and instead stabbed him in the shoulder Ichigo wasn't the least bit surprised, in fact he had kind of expected it. Turning he switched the bread knife to his other hand and stabbed it into the man's wrist and then cut it straight down as much as he could in the short time.

Ichigo was shoved back, and he fell to the ground, both knives hitting the ground. Ichigo's hadn't been stabbed in that deep and he had dropped his own knife. The man looked pissed, and with speed Ichigo didn't know he had the bastard started a flurry of punches and kicks. Most of them hit dead on and Ichigo spent most of that little time blocking or being hit. Eventually though blood loss took over. You can't have your arm split wide open from the wrist down and not pass out from blood loss. The man's punches grew weaker, enough to the point where Ichigo started his counter attack. Even when the man fell to the ground Ichigo didn't let up. Not until the bastard had stopped breathing and Ichigo grew too tired to punch anymore.

Panting he stood up and hesitantly took a step back. The man lay still, he wasn't breathing, it was then that Ichigo realized exactly what he had done. Swallowing thickly he took a look around the room, it was covered in blood. They had moved throughout the kitchen area and a trail of blood and mess followed their path, a full circle. Looking down at himself Ichigo numbly noted that he was covered in a mix of his own blood and whoever that bastard was. Automatically he walked to the phone and started dialing the phone but just as the ringing started something came to mind. This hadn't been a random robbing gone bad no…he quickly hung up the phone. He didn't want to sound paranoid but this had probably been a professional or…or something.

Shivering a little he glanced back at the man who was more than likely…dead and bleeding all over the kitchen floor. Slight panic set in, what the hell was he supposed to do now?! He could call the cops, that would only cause problems, a professional hit well…that meant something, something to do with his father in fact. Stepping through the bloody mess that was the kitchen the dropped to his knees and pressed his fingers to the man's neck and checked for vitals. Nothing at all. 'I just killed a man,' the thought swam around for a second, he had killed someone, not hurt or knocked out…killed.

For almost a minute he sat in shock before a new thought came to mind, he had to get rid of the body. He couldn't just leave it lying in his kitchen. That…that wouldn't be good. Forcing himself to stand he decided to start clean up. But first…he walked out of the kitchen and hurried up the steps, he had to find his sisters, were they okay? What had happened anyways? Were they injured at all? Had they seen what he'd done? All those thoughts and more raced through his mind as he started searching through the rooms calling out for his sisters in a worried whisper, for some reason not wanting to raise his voice above a whisper even thought he had nothing to worry about.

An answer never came and it worried him a little but he didn't let it show and instead hurried quickly through the upstairs, checking all the rooms until finally he ended up in his room again. He called for them once more. A small squeak came from his closet and instantly the orange-haired boy was at the door and yanking it open. His sisters were huddled in the corner, sitting on top of the blankets, Karin glaring at him for a few seconds before realizing exactly who it was. "Ichigo!" she said after a second, surprise obvious.

From behind her Yuzu looked out and gasped, "W-what happened! Y-you're covered in blood!" she squeaked, crawling out of the closet quickly.

Karin sat in the closet for a second longer and then stepped out, "Where's that guy…" she asked quietly.

Replying to that question would entail a lot of details that he didn't want to really reveal. Not when Yuzu was crying just from seeing his wound, the site of the dead body in the kitchen would probably send her into shock. Instead he just shook his head, "He left. I don't know where he went, ran out the back door. I'm going to make sure he's not out there still. Both of you should change into your pj's and go to sleep…okay?" he said, the lies coming easily.

Both of the girls were silent for a second before Yuzu nodded meekly, "O-okay…but um…are you okay?" she asked softly, her hands clinging tightly to his shirt as she looked down at the floor.

Ichigo ruffled her hair and smiled softly, he was surprised he could still do so when his mind was racing with what he had just done. "Of course Yuzu. I'll be fine. When I'm finished getting everything safe I'll get my shoulder fixed. It looks worse than it is," he said lightly.

Karin glowered at the floor, she wanted to say something, her brother most definitely was not okay, but…she looked at Yuzu who looked just about ready to fall over. Moving foreword she put her arm on her sisters shoulder, "Can we stay in your room?" she asked.

"Of course," he replied.

Reluctantly Yuzu released his shirt and with one last look at his two sisters Ichigo turned and left the room, on the outside looking surprisingly calm for how rapid his heart was beating and how fast his thoughts were racing. Closing the door behind him, Ichigo stood there for a second, he'd have to work quickly if he wanted things done by morning. He hurried quickly back to the kitchen, he'd have to drag the…the body someplace different. Clean the kitchen…clean himself up as well, get his wound checked, and of course make sure no one found out what he had ended up doing.

When he reached the kitchen it looked exactly like he'd left it. Blood everywhere, the corpse had slowly gotten a larger pool of blood in the time that Ichigo had been gone. Swallowing thickly he overlooked the mess and then hesitantly walked into the kitchen, "I have to get this done," he muttered softly and began to repeat that little mantra in his head over and over again as he started cleaning.

First he'd get rid of the body, that would be the best. Ichigo hesitated, from all that he saw touching the body with bare hands was a bad, bad idea…looking around he saw oven mitts. Grabbing those he slipped them on and grabbed onto the dead man's arm. Steeling himself he tugged and started dragging it towards the backdoor, he'd have to get it somewhere, anywhere but the kitchen. The backdoor lead to a small area where they had a small shed filled with extra medical supplies and a large trash bin where the medical trash went. A special arrangement that had been arranged just for their family. Ichigo's…current plan was to put the body in the bottom of the bin, cover it with the rest of it and hopefully figure something out in the morning.

Tugging violently he managed to drag the body to the door, it was painful though. His arm hurt like hell and it was…disgusting. Shaking a little Ichigo turned and slipped the oven mitt off and opened the door. As soon as it was open though Ichigo froze, in front of him was a second person dressed in white. His heart beat wildly as he stared in surprised at the new person, who was dressed so similarly to the dead man that there was no way it was just a coincidence.

Blank green eyes looked at him carefully, looking him up and down once before eyeing the dead body laying right behind him. "Did you kill him?"

Stiffening Ichigo didn't reply right away, the question had been asked so out of the blue that he didn't really know what to say. He opened and closed his mouth once, then relaxed a little, "If I did," he asked, his voice sounding surprisingly cold to himself.

For almost two minutes no one moved or said anything before a small nod from the man caused Ichigo to stiffen and prepare himself for something, anything. "I shall finish what you started then," the man said, taking a step foreword.

Moving quickly Ichigo backed up and stood by the knife drawer, hand on the handle in case the new person tried anything. Nothing happened though, the other man simply grabbed the man's arm and like it was nothing pulled him from the kitchen. Ichigo followed to the door and watched as the man effortless walked down the alley, pulling the body behind him like it was nothing. At the end he paused and looked back at Ichigo who was standing there awkwardly, "Do not get comfortable," came his voice, it sounded dry and emotionless…it gave Ichigo the creeps.

Not waiting around any longer Ichigo ducked back into the house and shut the door, locking and dead bolting the door quickly. Turning to the kitchen he glanced it over and then went to the sink, pulling the cabinet open he grabbed a set of sponges and the bleach…he had a large amount of work ahead of him.

For the next three hours he scrubbed every surface that had any of the blood on it, the floor, the counters, he washed the knives in bleach, soaked the oven mitts in bleach as well. He did every surface that might have come in contact with that…man's blood. In then end he surveyed his work and deemed it clean. Hesitantly he unlocked his door and looked out into the alley, it was still dark but from Ichigo could see that through the dirt was a path of dark, a trail of blood.

Grabbing a broom he cautiously walked out and went to the end, working carefully he erased the second to last bit of evidence of just a few hours ago. Once in a pile he put the dirt in a bag and threw that away. Back in the house he re-locked and dead bolted the doors and then went up the bathroom to get himself clean, the last of the evidence would be washed away.

Ichigo took one of the fastest and hottest showers in the history of ever. He had turned the heat up as hot as it'd go and gotten rid of the blood as fast as he could. Getting out he put on a towel and grabbed his bloodied clothes. Moving quickly he went downstairs and threw them in the trash, before grabbing the last bottle of bleach they had in the whole house. Ichigo had used more cleaning supplies this night than he had in his whole life or so it seemed. Back to the bathroom he went and not even hesitating he cleaned the tub with the last of the bleach. If investigated there would be pretty much no blood evidence hopefully.

With everything done he relaxed a little, at the moment he had no reason to be overly cautious but he didn't exactly want to relax just yet. Tiredly he walked to his room and opened the door, his eyes immediately landed on his two sisters. They were sleeping on his bed, probably having fallen asleep a while ago. Ichigo went to his dresser and pulled out some clothes, he went back to the bathroom, changed and then returned to his bedroom.

Going to the closet he opened the door and lay down on the large pile of blankets his family stored in there. Closing his eyes he frowned and tried his best to ignore the fact that he had just killed someone. That thought danced around and around in his head along with that man, what did he want? What did he mean? And what did the…dead man mean about his father? Groaning he pressed his hands to his head, too many things had happened tonight, he just wanted to forget everything. Rolling over he buried himself into the blankets and tried his best to get some sleep.

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A/N: So um...yeah. I am so, so, so sorry if you didn't like this chapter. I think it was a little slow...but um hopefully as time goes on it will get better and not so um...slow-ish. I really just hope at least one person likes this, this has been an idea stuck in my head for a little while now. I'm not good at writing multi-chapter things but hopefully with this I can give it a shot and finish it. With enough motivation anythings possible...right? Um...right...well hopefully this turns out well. And if you didn't like it then I'm sorry...but if you did then I'm glad. At least someone enjoyed it. For everyone who's even glanced at this thank you so much for even bothering to give it a glance, if you see any mistakes at all do tell me. I'm not very good at catching some of these things so if anything looks off don't hesitate to mention it. Once again thank you...


	2. Paranoia Justified

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach...seriously...

Rated M- for the violence and swearing mostly. Err...and um...mostly as a precaution as well....

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Morning came faster than he thought and with it came his sisters questions. His alarm ringing is what really woke him up, sometime between agonizing about what he had just done and the harsh ringing of his alarm he had managed to get some sleep. Ichigo groaned and opened his eyes, he was sore all over and he was pretty sure he was currently bleeding all over the blankets as well, having forgotten to wrap his wound up. Glaring at his alarm clock that was still ringing he reluctantly rolled off the blankets, crossed the room and shut off the alarm. Just crossing the room was a pain.

Looking around he didn't see his sisters and was a little relieved, they had probably woken up already and were downstairs. Yawning Ichigo tiredly made his way down to the kitchen, where Yuzu was probably making breakfast…well were she would be if it was a normal day anyways. Sure enough though she was there, cooking diligently, with Karin sitting at the table reading the newspaper. "Morning," he muttered, taking a seat at the table as well.

Turning from the stove Yuzu smiled at him, although it was a little strained, "Good morning Ichigo, um…have you seen my oven mitt? I can't seem to find it, b-but I thought I had put it where it always is and I thought that maybe…" she trailed off and looked worried for a second.

"Sorry don't know where it is. Might have gotten lost last night when I was cleaning," he said with a small shrug, which hurt.

It was a lie of course, he had let the oven mitt and knives soak over night and they were hidden so his sisters wouldn't come across them on accident. "What exactly happened last night," Karin asked suddenly, setting the newspaper down.

Ichigo was at a lost for words for a second, what exactly had happened last night. He didn't even fully know, "That guy…he…stabbed me, and then after that I…" he hesitated for a second, he defiantly couldn't tell the truth, " I managed to get him out of the house. I…don't know where he went after that," he finished lamely.

In the kitchen Yuzu stopped cooking, "Did you get your wound cleaned?" she asked looking at him carefully.

Shaking his head Ichigo stood up, it was an excuse to leave the kitchen and Karin's unbelieving, accusing stare, "No, I'll go do that right now," he said quickly and left the kitchen.

Behind him his sisters watched him leave in silence. Yuzu worried about her brother, and Karin wondering exactly why Ichigo would have to lie about whatever happened last night…

Cleaning, washing, and wrapping up his shoulder by himself actually took a lot longer than he thought. Enough to the point that Yuzu went to offer her help but found the door locked and was unable to get it. Ichigo had noticed and thought briefly of letting her in but decided against it, why bother her with something he could handle himself. And there was no doubt that he could handle this by himself, he really didn't want to get his sisters involved in this if he could help it.

When he did finish though he didn't leave the room, instead he sat in the chair and stared blankly at the wall in front of him. Everything that had happened, it…well it just wasn't possible. He hadn't dreamed that happened, not only did his stab wound disprove that but his sisters did as well with their own experiences with…whoever that man had been, he had been real. So…who was he? The guy was trying to kill them, that was obvious, but…what did that have to do with his dad? Or in fact, why try killing them at all? Ichigo groaned and grabbed his head, he was giving himself a headache with all these questions and the obvious lack of answers.

Very similar questions to what he had asked himself last night, worse now since he was wide awake now. He could have just called the cops and been done with it, sure he would have been charged with self-defense or…or something! Not now though…the next day just telling the police he knew of the murder would get him sent straight to prison, but what did he know about the law? He was 15! All he knew was from television and stories he'd heard. Rubbing his forehead he cursed his luck, not only had he royally screwed himself over but he was probably dealing with psychos with his luck. Not only that but the man's final words before leaving, 'Don't get comfortable'? What exactly did that mean?

Leaning back in his seat Ichigo sighed, he had really messed up. A quiet knock came at the door, "Ichigo? Are…you alright? I knocked earlier but no one answered…" Yuzu asked quietly.

Glancing at the clock Ichigo was surprised to see that so much time had passed. School was supposed to start pretty soon and he wasn't even ready. It wasn't any surprised his sister was worried, "I'm fine. You two should get to school though," he replied, standing up but after that made no more move to leave the locked room.

From outside the room there was a few seconds of silence then a reluctant reply, "Alright…we'll see you tonight then," and then footsteps as his sister left the door.

He wasn't exactly sure how long he stood there in silence trying to collect himself, he had no idea how he was going to explain his wound, what he would say if the police had actually come to investigate. He had taken care of this in a rushed manner and it showed…showed in a bad way. Ichigo did eventually collect himself and after shaking the ugly feeling of what he'd done, he left the room and walked quickly to the kitchen.

There was a small plate of food for him, courtesy of Yuzu obviously, but other than that everything was cleaned up and the kitchen looked just like how it normally did. Spotless and sparkling clean. Pushing what had happened last night out of his mind Ichigo quietly ate his breakfast, cleaned and put away the plates and then finished what he had started last night.

Getting the oven mitt and knives from their hiding spot he drained the bleach and after rinsing the knives put them away and then looked at the oven mitt. Frowning at the very…drastic difference from what it had once looked like. Now it was just a wet bleach soaked mess. Sighing he picked up the container and oven mitt and walked out the backdoor again. Tossing both items into the trash he hesitated before going back inside. His hand on the doorknob he paused and looked back at the alley were the man had dragged the man he had…had killed.

It could have been the overall haziness of last night but strangely enough the alley looked cleaner than it had last night. Like a second person had come in and cleaned up all the things back here that he had missed in the dark last night. It was…well it was eerie and brought a shiver down his spine. Shaking it off though he quickly went back into the house, locking the door behind him.

With everything from last night taken care of Ichigo reluctantly went about getting ready for school. He was currently missing the first parts of school but if he hurried than he'd be able to make it before lunch and catch the rest of his classes. That and come up with an excuse to the injury he had mysteriously gained overnight. So as much as he could Ichigo stalled himself. Walking as slow as he could, folding and shuffling papers that didn't need that attention, getting everything gathered as slowly as possible. Once everything was ready though and he was dressed there was nothing left to do but walk to school.

With a sigh Ichigo opened the front door, closed it, locked it behind him and turned to unknowingly face on of the scariest people on the planet. Turning from the door he saw the man froze and took a step back instinctively, why he didn't exactly know, he just wanted some distance between himself and whoever that man was. Just a few feet away the man smiled softly, "Ah, so you must be the one who killed him. No other person would be so paranoid for no reason."

The look that crossed his face must have been funny to the man because a low chuckle followed that statement, "No reason to be so afraid. Ichigo Kurosaki correct? I am merely here to offer you a job…if you'd please follow me," he said taking a step to the side and moving so there was room for Ichigo to pass by to the now seeable limo parked in front of his house.

Shaking his head Ichigo quickly looked for any possible escape routes, "I can't, I do still have school to get to," he muttered.

The man smiled again, this time though…it didn't seem as friendly. Overall he looked an intimidating figure. Gelled back brown hair, a single strand falling out of place in between his eyes, a confident look on is face and brown eyes, combine that with the rather expensive suit he was wearing this man obviously had some amount of power, if not a lot of it if appearances were anything to go by. "Kurosaki that wasn't a request. Please, follow me," he said.

A rather sarcastic reply bubbled up but Ichigo managed to hold his tongue and with a scowling face passed the business man and walked to the limo, before he could even think of turning the corner and making a run for it, the man said the words the sealed his fate, "I wouldn't suggest running, we wouldn't want your sisters to get hurt now would we. You tried so hard to protect them last night, why fail at your job right now?"

Freezing he turned and glared at the man, "Don't you fucking dare touch them!" the unspoken words of 'or I'll kill you' hung unsaid but obvious in the air.

Whatever reaction Ichigo had expected it wasn't the man smiling patronizingly at him and ushering him towards the limo, "We'll talk later, I was merely saying. You'll learn soon enough."

Before Ichigo could say anything he heard the limo door open, after a few seconds of glaring at the man he reluctantly turned to get inside the vehicle. Briefly he glanced at the driver who stood there, head bowed, hat covering any features that would have made him distinct. Another uneasy feeling bubbled up but Ichigo couldn't exactly brush this one off. He was getting into a limo the night after killing someone against his will by a man who had just threatened his family…the uneasy feeling was reasonable.

Making himself as comfortable as he could Ichigo sat in the seat on the opposite side of the business man, who merely got in and sat down. Neither of them said anything as the driver shut the door and started up the limo. At first no one said anything, Ichigo didn't know what to say and as much as he wanted to know what was going on he had a feeling that the bastard across from him wouldn't say anything until he had to. So for the first few minutes the rode in silence.

"You may call me Aizen," the man said suddenly.

Ichigo blinked and stared at him, was this guy serious? "Alright Aizen…what the hell is this about?" he snapped, glaring at the business man fiercely.

Once again the man chuckled, apparently Ichigo was incredible amusing to him or something. "Such a temper on you. I merely want to talk is all. I did say I have a job offer for you, I believe it'd be in your best interest to take the offer I'm going to give you Ichigo."

Regardless of what his thoughts were going to be Ichigo had the feeling that he wouldn't have much of a say in this 'job offer'. Steeling himself for whatever he was going to hear Ichigo asked his question, "And…what exactly would that job be?"

Another smile, that in other circumstances might have been pleasant only enforced his uneasy feeling, "To take over for the man you killed of course. In order to keep our numbers from dropping to drastically I recently started this rule that replaces the dead with their killers. Interestingly enough you are the first to have me instigate the rule," he sighed although it seemed more mocking than real, "Here I thought I'd be rid of him first but I suppose I can't always be right."

It took a few seconds to sink in as Ichigo stared wide eyed in surprise at Aizen. He was serious, or at least he seemed serious, so the offer seemed real. Of course that brought of the question of whether this man was sane! He was a teenager, he had no experience in…in whatever it was he'd do! "Are you insane!?" he shouted, his surprised and disbelief obvious.

Instead of smiling Aizen sighed and looked at him like one would a confused child, which of course did nothing to help the business man's cause. "Really now Ichigo, I sort of expected better from you. I won't expect much from you at first. Today is merely the day I explain that from here on foreword you're employed by me. Are you hungry?"

The question took him by surprise and he stuttered a few nonsense words before shaking his head, "No! I'm not hungry! What do you mean I'm employed!? I don't even know what I'd be doing!"

For a second a look of annoyance crossed Aizen's face, it was enough though. Ichigo easily saw it and quickly remembered exactly who he was dealing with. A complete stranger with enough power to not only orchestrate a hit on his family, but if they were in this expensive of a limo enough money to back it up as well…in short a very powerful man. Before he could say anything Ichigo quickly corrected himself as his intelligence finally caught up with him, "A-actually I would like some food."

Seconds later another smile crossed Aizen's face, the same one that kept appearing again and again, that annoying pleasant yet creepy smile. "Very well then," he pressed a button, "If you would please stop by usually lunch," he said, probably talking to the driver.

Crackles of static crossed the speakers for a second before the drivers voice replied, "Yes sir, shall I come back at the usual time?"

"No. I'll call you, today's schedule is a bit different today," and with that he released the button and pleasantly turned back to Ichigo, "Normally I'd wouldn't even have to explain things but I'll briefly explain over lunch. Do you enjoy Italian?"

Ichigo shrugged, "Never really had it," he said as politely as he could.

The sudden change in attitude caused the smallest of smirks to cross Aizen's face, easily mistakable as a small smile if you weren't careful. Not having anything left to say Ichigo sat in the limo silently, his mind racing as he tried to register and figure out what exactly was going on. He had apparently killed someone in a group of some sorts that…well that had this strange and creepy business man as their representative or something, employer he had mentioned. So…that meant what exactly? He'd be working for this guy? Doing what…

Killing people. It seemed a pretty obvious answer now, this guy…Aizen was hiring him…to kill people. Ichigo paled a little, he hadn't actually meant to kill the other guy! Let alone kill others for…for money or whatever it was they got. But…he would kill if it was for his family, that threat Aizen had lightly mentioned earlier hadn't been a mild threat…it had been very, very real.

"We're here Ichigo, if you'd follow me," and with that Aizen left the limo.

Without a seconds thought Ichigo followed after him quickly, he had some questions that need some goddamn answers, and he wouldn't get them from sitting around thinking about his situation. Only from following this Aizen man would he get anything, and he couldn't fix this situation until he knew what exactly he had gotten himself into.

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A/N: Well uh...here's the next chapter. I apologize to anyone if this doesn't make sense or um...if there's some inconsistancy. Once again reviews are welcome but not exactly needed. Mostly I just wanna hear from someone who likes it so that I know that I'm not just writing this for myself and putting it up on the internet for no reason...but um. At least I know people are reading so I hope you like it at least. Any questions, comments, concerns? Ask away and I shall try my best to address them as soon as possible. But uh...thank you for at least reading this and I hope you enjoyed it.


	3. Little White Lie

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach...  
Rated M- For the violence and language mostly...so uh...yeah...

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"How the hell is this supposed to work anyways," Ichigo muttered to himself, looking at the item in his hand.

The…lunch with Aizen had extended much longer than just lunch, the whole conversation had been well spread out and irritating as it was the man had both given him a lot of information without really revealing anything at all. Not only was it annoying but it was also frustrating, how was he supposed to prepare himself for whatever would happen, or even what he was supposed to do, if he didn't know anything. Apparently Aizen expected him to figure it out himself.

After the lunch had started edging on into dinner he had been shoved back into the limo and after that he had been driven for no reason at all until the driver had dropped Aizen off and then finally went to let him get out of the limo…at least seven blocks from his house that is. Forced to walk the rest of the way home he was not only pissed when he got there but he was tired as well. Everything that happened the night before and today had been way too much in such a short amount of time. So…when he entered the house he had yelled his greeting and went straight to his room, locking the door behind him.

Now he was here, staring at the item Aizen had given him, Aizen had told him it'd be his lifeline, the item that would practically be his life from now on and to never lose it or show it to outsiders. What that exactly meant, Ichigo didn't know, but the fact it was a phone was a little strange. A white cell phone was the item that was to apparently become his life. This raised the question though…how exactly would this work? Aizen had just given it to him and then left the limo.

Ichigo sighed and opened the phone, white background with a gothic number zero he had tried changing it but the thing wouldn't change no matter what he did. Going through the menu he checked the numbers, empty, it made no sense to give him a phone that not only he couldn't do anything with but didn't even have a single phone number on it. Groaning Ichigo lay on his bed in defeat, the whole thing didn't make sense. Aizen didn't make sense.

The lunch had been horrible, he had barely gleamed anything off of it and he didn't even like the food that Aizen had ordered without even letting him look at the menu. Closing his eyes Ichigo thought back to that wretched lunch. Overall it had been uneventful, Aizen had ordered both the food and drink and then made them sit around in silence until it arrived. After eating, and only after did he start talking. Most of it Ichigo had passed off as useless, something or another about how a great deal was to be expected of him. Something Ichigo found to be pretty obvious, he was supposed to sneak into people's homes and murder them…yeah…that was one of the easiest things in the world to do.

Eventually though Aizen had let out one little bit that Ichigo had found…interesting. Aizen had said, and this was if he remembered correctly, "Every person who works for me is quite pleased with the arrangements I provide. As long as they don't do anything they're not supposed to it all works out. Of course if they ever find it unpleasant there are some…steps that I can take to prevent them from leaving. I'm afraid I don't allow anyone to resign," of course when he said interesting he meant interesting…in a creepy way.

Not only did that sound like a threat but it also seemed that he wasn't going to be the only unhappy one in this group. Opening his eyes Ichigo glanced at the phone again, staring at the locked background in some hope that it'd tell him something that he hadn't managed to figure out. All he knew was that he was royally screwed over. Not only was he being employed by a probably insane man but he also couldn't leave once employed without something bad happening, oh and of course the job detailed killing people that sucked as well.

A soft knock came at his door, tearing his gaze away from the phone, "Who is it?" he asked.

"Ichigo are you hungry? You um…weren't at school apparently and you didn't come home until really late…" Yuzu said softly.

Instead of explaining Ichigo left it simple, "I already ate thanks though," and then he hoped that she'd accept it at that and leave.

She didn't leave right away, but instead stood outside the door probably thinking of saying something. Eventually though Ichigo heard her soft footsteps signal her leaving. Sighing Ichigo rolled over, at the moment some sleep sounded good.

Peaceful sleep on the other hand was hard to come by. Halfway through the night Ichigo woke up, the images of his dream too realistic to properly ignore, especially considering half of them were from the night before. Glancing at the clock he saw that even though he didn't feel like he got a lot of sleep he had in fact gotten in a good amount. 2:29am was too early to be up, but Ichigo really didn't feel like going back to sleep, instead Ichigo rolled out of bed, got ready for the day and went down to the living room.

Sitting down Ichigo yawned tiredly and sat there for a little bit, unsure of what exactly to do. As of now he had no definite plan of what to do. Aizen was…well Ichigo didn't know exactly what Aizen was, the man was the leader of a group of killers, although that didn't speak well of his character the friendly smiles and the way the waitress had acted pointed to him being well liked. Feeling a headache growing Ichigo decided to turn to less could-kill-me-if-I-screw-up matters and instead decided to think of what he was going to tell his friends as his excuse for not being at school yesterday. After all he couldn't exactly say he was having lunch with the man who was trying to employ him to kill people for a living because he had killed one of the man's employees, now could he?

Different ideas went though his head, he could say he hadn't been feeling well. He had lost track of time, that was sort of plausible. A better one was that he had gotten into a fight because of his hair again and then had gone to his home and by the time he was done patching himself up too much time had passed to go back to school. It was the current favorite, it also explained off the whole stab wound, which he really should have changed as soon as he got home but hadn't. Sighing Ichigo sat there thinking about what he'd say, how much he'd keep at least close to the truth, and how much he'd have to change into complete and utter lies.

It was only when Yuzu came down form upstairs was he broken from the little trance he had put himself in. As soon as his little sister saw him she smiled sleepily, a confused look on her face, "What are you doing up so early?" she asked, rubbing her eyes in an attempt to get more awake and aware.

"Couldn't sleep, you need any help with breakfast?" Ichigo asked, a little eager to do something to keep his mind off his situation…the situation his family had forcibly been dragged into.

Yawning Yuzu nodded, "Okay, you can start it up, I'll um…" she paused for a second, "I'll go get ready. You can go warm up the stove, get the stuff out," she said sleepily.

Nodding Ichigo went to the kitchen and did exactly what she said, as to what exactly he was supposed to get out he didn't know. She hadn't exactly told him what to grab, but…she had just woken up so it wasn't that surprising. Opening the fridge he stared at the various foods and eventually grabbed what looked appropriate for breakfast and set it out on the counter. After turning on the stove he stood there awkwardly with nothing left to do, looking around Ichigo spotted something he hadn't noticed before on the calendar that Yuzu insisted on having.

In red slightly messy handwriting were the words 'Dad gets back' exactly a week from today. Staring at it for a few seconds he wondered what would have happened if his idiot of a father hadn't been off renewing his license. What if he had been home yesterday? What would've happened, would the man have succeeded, would his sisters be dead? That very thought was pissing him off, here he had escaped one little disaster and an even bigger one came in to ruin what he had managed to save. But…relaxing a little Ichigo couldn't help but feel a little relief, his father hadn't been here, they were still all alive, and he was going to figure a way out of this mess…somehow.

"Dad called last night, said he wouldn't be getting home until next week. You were asleep. We won't be hearing anything from him until he gets back," Karin said calmly, walking into the kitchen and eyeing her brother carefully, "Where were you yesterday? You didn't go to school but you didn't get home until almost dinner," she said suspiciously.

Shrugging Ichigo winced a little, his shoulder was still hurt, "I didn't quite get done until late, by then it was too late to go to school. Someone called and asked me to meet them somewhere. They never showed but I waited for them for a while," he lied easily, surprisingly so.

Karin frowned, she wasn't buying it. But judging by how jumpy her brother was being, and how adverse he was being to answering her questions… he was definitely hiding something. Letting out a frustrated sigh Karin went to get something to drink. She'd figure out what her brother was hiding, if it was important enough for him to hid, then it was important enough for her to figure out.

Even with Karin suspiciously watching his every move, the morning actually passed by rather quickly with his sisters awake. With Yuzu's help he got his stab wound properly looked at, got some medication for it and got it properly wrapped along with getting at least some food in his stomach. The last time he'd eaten was about 24 hours ago, even with that in mind he wasn't that hungry, the very thought of food actually made him feel a little ill. To make Yuzu worry less though he had forced himself to eat something before they walked to school together, his sisters wanting to make sure he actually made it.

After seeing him off, Ichigo watched his sisters walk to their own school until he couldn't see them anymore. For a second he thought about following them to make sure that nothing bad happened but he pushed that worry down and walked into the school building. He was just having irrational yet completely rational fears was all.

Instead of looking for his friends like always, or waiting for them to find him, Ichigo walked straight to his class and took his seat. When lunch came he'd get enough questions, he really didn't need to deal with them before school as well. If he could help it, he'd give them as little to work on as possible, and try not to let them get any ideas. The less his friends knew the better, after all if this Aizen man was threatening his family it was only a little step to threaten his friends as well.

Normally school passed at almost agonizingly slow rate, but today the morning classes seemed to fly by. Lunch came at an astonishingly fast rate and as soon as the bell rang for lunch Ichigo reluctantly knew that he wouldn't be able to push off answering questions. Hopefully they'd leave it be and he'd get away easy enough with little to no damage done to any of them. As slowly as he could Ichigo wandered up to the rooftop, the normally place they met for lunch. Even though he walked as slowly as possible he still managed to be the first one there.

Calming himself Ichigo sat down in his usual spot and relaxed, there was nothing to worry about. Closing his eyes he sat there calmly and just waited, he would have started eating if he wasn't feeling so ill at just the thought of food. He heard the door open and seconds later "Ichigo! See I told you he'd be here!" Keigo exclaimed brightly.

Opening his eyes Ichigo watched as his friends quickly approached their spot by the fence. "Where were you yesterday! You missed out on-" and even as Ichigo faded out to what he was saying Keigo continued to rattle off different reasons as to why he should have been at school.

"So why weren't you here?" Mizuiro asked, sitting down calmly next to Chad who was staying silent as of this moment.

Ichigo resisted the urge to shrug, "Got into a fight was all, didn't get myself patched up in time to get to school," he said easily, having already practiced those lines in his head to make them sound as natural as possible.

"What! Did you have to go the hospital or something!" Keigo said, turning his attention quickly to the conversation at hand.

"Uh the guy had a knife and managed to hit me is all. Nothing serious so I just used our clinic at home," Ichigo answered, so far so good.

That was until Chad spoke, "You don't seem very injured. Was there only a few?"

Nodding Ichigo quickly continued with his lie, "Not too many, I got the first two down pretty quickly but the third had the knife and…caught me by surprise."

For a second there was silence as his friends digested this information, Ichigo was glad that at least it was just them. If Tatsuki, Orihime and the other girls had been up here there would have been a lot more questions. Luckily enough though they were down eating somewhere else. "Well at least your alright," Mizuiro said.

The other two nodded in agreement, with that pushed out of the way Ichigo quickly started up topic that he knew would get Keigo going and easily push the attention off of him. And with that he successfully managed to avoid any sticky situations that would have arose if any of his friends knew about what he had gotten himself into. With telling them though, he also avoided telling any of his other friends, with Keigo's habit of spreading things the rest of his friends would know the story by the end of the week and he wouldn't have to speak another word about it. Relaxing a little Ichigo tried to enjoy the rest of his lunch, unaware of Chad's slightly un-convinced look.

After lunch the rest of school passed quickly, Ichigo managed to get all the homework he missed, nothing horrible happened, and overall it was a pretty good day, minus the large amount of work he'd have to do when he got home that is. And for a while, things went on like that. In fact for the rest of the week things went perfect almost. Aizen didn't show up on his doorsteps, his sisters remained alive and well, and he was fine too. The white phone Aizen had give him remained locked and unused on top of his desk, and after the first two days things quieted down about the fact he had been stabbed. Everything had been fine until that last day of school that week.

Like everyday Ichigo woke up, got ready for school, but…as he was grabbing his homework that he'd left on the desk he noticed something. The white phone that had been silent all week was now showing something on the screen. Picking it up Ichigo stared at the small screen blankly that showed in words clear as day: 3 New Messages. Feeling whatever good feelings he had drop away, he took a calming breath and opened the phone.

Getting to the message screen Ichigo stared at it. All of the numbers were supposed to be unknown but instead of just numbers they all read from Aizen. Looking at the times he was a little surprised to see that they had been sent just a few minutes ago, so if they were a warning he was getting it in time at least. Opening the one sent earliest he was…well surprised at what it said.

_To all Esapda, it's been almost a week since we last had any business. As much as it pains me to say this, I have bad, yet wonderful news! Number 10, what's his face Yam something is dead. Now don't ya start cryin over him, we got someone new. Kurosaki Ichigo, our youngest member yet. Hope ya treat him well. -Gin, Aizen, Tousen_

At the sight of his own name in the message Ichigo couldn't help but feel nervous, there was no way he was backing out of this now. The next thing he noticed though was the names at the bottom, all three of them. Aizen he recognized, but…Gin and Tousen he didn't quite notice. He wasn't really familiar with the bastard of a business man yet but even Ichigo could tell he hadn't been the one to write this message out so it was one of the other two. But…what exactly did this mean? Shaking those thoughts off Ichigo moved on to the next message.

_To all Espada: As mentioned we have a new member. Since Aizen likes havin' unity and all that we're goin to have a nice introductory meetin for him. If you want to introduce yourself, see the new guy, or even intimidate him enough to scare him then come down to the ever wonderful Starlight Café tonight, you've all been there before. 12:20am is the meetin' time. Don't be late! -Gin, Aizen, Tousen_

Frowning Ichigo stared at that text for even longer. An…introductory meeting? What exactly was with this group. The time was also a problem, either that was a typo, or there really was a café that was still open at almost 1 am. Since it was an introductory meeting he'd have to be there, but what about everyone else? Exactly how many people were in the Espada? Small enough to send texts to them…but these were generic messages, so it could still be a very large number. A large number filled with cold-blooded killers who wouldn't hesitate to snap his neck in two. Now slightly more nervous than he had been before Ichigo went on the last message.

_0 Ichigo Kurosaki: I do hope you enjoyed our luncheon, I have the oddest feeling you didn't quite like me all that much. As you might already be aware we are holding a meeting for you later tonight. 12:20 to be exact, I suggest you get there early. I do not tolerate lateness well. The rules shall be explained at the meeting, until then I hope you make good time and arrive on time. Not being there isn't an option. Directions are attached to this message. I shall be seeing you soon. -Aizen, Gin, Tousen_

Staring at the message Ichigo didn't know what to think. At the moment he felt that he was drowning…drowning and the only rescue was the man who had tossed him overboard in the first place…

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A/N: So there ya go, the chapter's done. Hopefully it's not that boring and you find something to enjoy about it. I know things haven't exactly been going the fastest of paces nor has this been the most intersting of things to read. But now that we're finally introducing the other Espada it'll start getting more interesting. Right...well uh...I don't really have much to say. I hope you've enjoyed this story so far. As always please direct all questions, comments, complaints, noticing of errors to me if you so chose to. All comments are appreciated! So uh...that's about it. With nothing left to say I bid you goodbye until next time.


	4. Welcome to the Jungle

Disclaimer- I do not own Bleach nor do I ever plan to...  
Rated M- For the language and violence in the further chapters...and stuff...

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After getting the text messages the day just seemed to fly by. Ichigo would glance at the clock, wait a few seconds before looking at it again and 5 minutes would've passed by already. It really wouldn't have been all that bad for normal days, key word though…normal. Today was not normal by any means. He'd woken up to a text message pretty much telling him to meet a bunch of assassins like he was going to some goddamn tea party or something! Regardless of how much Ichigo tried to slow down time thought it flew past and eventually dinner was over and he was sitting in his room again, staring at his phone anxiously. Minutes ticked by and the moment he would have to leave and meet his new 'associates' drew closer.

When the clock hit 10pm he heard his sisters start getting ready for bed. Ichigo anxiously waited until he heard them both enter their room before even thinking of moving. For a few minutes though he stayed exactly where he was, making sure neither of them got up and found him leaving the house. Ichigo had purposely entered his room early and had turned off his lights at about 9pm to make it seem like he was already sleeping. To ruin that illusion by getting caught sneaking out by his sisters would…well it wouldn't be good that's for sure.

Only when the clock turned 10:30 did Ichigo move. Getting up he grabbed his phone and jacket before leaving his room. As quietly as he could Ichigo went down the stairs, and after grabbing the keys left his house, locking the door behind him. Wondering to how exactly he was going to pull this off Ichigo started towards his destination, the Starlight Café. It was a good thing that Aizen had included directions otherwise he would have been completely lost as to where to go. The café was buried deep in the center of town and with it's rather non-descript front was apparently hard to miss.

Sighing Ichigo buried his hands in his pocket and lost himself in thought. He was out late at night, with the possibility of being attacked, or killed, or caught be the police or something for being out so late was extremely high but then again that odd was probably multiplied by his currently very high amount of paranoia. The thought of going to a café to meet a bunch of criminals, a bunch of murderers was…well to tell the truth it was rather unsettling. A few images of large muscle bound jerks like the man he killed passed through his mind, if all of them were like that then he was probably going to die a quick death, hopefully painless.

Of course he was currently being rather morbid, Ichigo sighed, it'd be best to just…well not think. Looking around Ichigo got his bearings and continued on his way, according to his directions it was just a few minutes before he arrived at his destination. Just a few minutes before he'd find out whether or not he'd be able to live through the night. Scowling a little Ichigo shook those thoughts off, being this depressing wasn't going to help in any way, shape, or form! Forcing himself to relax Ichigo contented himself to just thinking of his current homework assignments, that was both far away from what was happening at this moment and well…not morbid or depressing.

It didn't take long before Ichigo was standing outside the doors to Starlight Café. Glancing at the hour sign he was a little worried when he saw that they closed in like five minutes. Opening the door a little bell sounded as he walked inside. Looking around he wasn't all that surprised to see the store was completely empty save for the one employee that came up to him with a small frown, "Sir I'm sorry but we're closing soon. I'm afraid we don't have anything to serve you," he said calmly.

Ichigo pushed down the little panic that bubbled up, "I was uh…supposed to meet someone here though. I'm early actually but I…he told me to come here," he said.

The man looked confused, "Strange…who was it you were supposed to be meeting?" he asked politely.

"He didn't tell me his fully name but um his name is Aizen. He to-" whatever words Ichigo was going to say faltered as the man in front of him paled visibly.

In an instant the man looked terrified and turning he pointed towards a door, "J-just go through there, through the kitchen, f-first door on the right," he said hurriedly, looking pointedly at the floor.

Confused Ichigo muttered a quick thank you and then walked towards the door the man had pointed out. What had that reaction been about? If he had been confused before it was nothing to what he was right now, nothing was making sense. Sighing Ichigo opened the door and wasn't all that surprised to see a large well-cleaned kitchen. Wandering to the back end Ichigo looked for a second door, not finding one at first.

It took a good five minutes of searching the kitchen to finally find the door, which was well hidden by the large walk in refrigerator. Opening that he was faced with a little hallway, five doors, three on the left, two on the right. Ichigo frowned, "First door on the right" he muttered and with as much confidence as he could muster Ichigo pulled open the door.

Entering the room he was…well he was surprised. It was empty of people was the first thing he noticed, the second was that this was a really lavish room for such a small store. A large table, expensive looking, sat in the center. Surrounding it were a bunch of chairs, just one of them looked like it cost a fortune. Off in the corner was a little table with a coffee machine and a small tray of what looked to be cookies of some sort. Hesitantly Ichigo walked towards the little table and examined that closer. The tray was filled with cookies, all sorts of them, and instead of being empty of coffee, the machine had a full pot waiting and hot.

Still as confused as ever, and now just a little bit more worried Ichigo took a seat at one of the 11 chairs. Nervously glancing around Ichigo quickly found a clock hanging on the wall, it too fit in with the décor of the room- expensive. Currently it showed the time was 11:03pm, just past closing time. Ichigo couldn't help but feel that maybe he had arrived just a bit too early.

Taking a calming breath Ichigo decided that he had arrived at the right place, and regardless of how early he was eventually the…others would arrive. As to who exactly these people would be Ichigo didn't know, he just really hoped they weren't freaks, but knowing his luck everyone of them would be crazy. Groaning Ichigo lay his head on the table, it hurt to think this much, it really did. Why couldn't things keep being simple?

A little too quickly the time passed by and too soon Ichigo heard someone approaching. They definitely weren't being quite about it either, loud talking voices approached and Ichigo lifted his head off the table and watched the door warily. Seconds later it was pushed open and Ichigo finally got his first look at some of the Espada. Two of them to be exact, both male. One with black hair just past shoulder length, one of his eyes was covered by a strange white eye patch thing and he was grinning and nodding to the other person who looked just as odd if not odder. Short…pink…hair, yellow eyes and a pair of white rimmed glasses, he was the one talking, animatedly explaining something to the other.

Even though he was the only person in the room, and was positioned in plain sight the two talking men didn't actually see him until almost five minutes later. It was in the middle of a sentence that the pink haired man happened to glance in his direction and stopped talking suddenly causing the other to also look in Ichigo's direction. For a few seconds the three of them stared at each other before the pink haired man spoke, "Ah…you must be Ichigo Kurosaki?"

Hesitantly Ichigo nodded, "Y-yeah, and who are you?"

It was the black haired man who spoke first, his toothy grin was starting to creep Ichigo out a little, "Well, well, Master Aizen must be getting pretty desperate to higher someone this young. How long you think he's going to last?"

A chuckle, "Who knows," and before they continued he turned his attention to Ichigo, "It really is a pleasure getting to know one of the newest experiment…I'm sorry. The newest Espada that Aizen has hired. I'm Szayel Aporro Granz, number 8 of the Espada," he said with a small smirk.

Ichigo didn't know if the man had been joking with the experiment thing or if he was serious, but paling slightly he just nodded mutely. Before he could even think of anything to say the other man spoke up, "Nnoitra Jiruga, number 5," pulling out a chair the man sat down.

Szayel did the same taking his own seat and the two of them spoke a few more words, switching to some language Ichigo didn't understand at all. Feeling a little more nervous Ichigo wondered briefly if he should say anything, hell what would he say anyways? "So Ichigo, did you cause that rather…interesting mess that I was told to help fix earlier this week?" Szayel asked.

For a second he was confused, and it must have shown because with a sigh the pink haired man continued, "Considering you were the one who killed number 0 and it was his blood at the scene, you were the one I was cleaning up after. You did a poor job after all, it was pretty obvious to see that a crime was committed," he smirked and looked at Ichigo condescendingly, "I'm frankly a little surprised that Master Aizen even took an interest in you, after all you did such a poor job covering your tracks if we hadn't intervened…" the man purposefully trailed off.

Inwardly fuming Ichigo resisted the urge to say anything, he didn't want to piss these people off. After all, these men had probably killed people for less than one sarcastic remark. When he didn't rise to the bait Nnoitra scoffed, "Just give it up, this kid's probably too stupid to even get what your saying. Ignore him anyways, probably won't be here after his first mission anyways," he said setting his feet on the table and leaning back in his chair.

"Take your feet off the table, it costs more than you ever will," someone said coldly…someone with a sort of familiar voice.

Looking quickly at the new person Ichigo quickly figured out why, it was the exact same man who had shown up at his house the night he had…well the night he had unknowing added himself to the Espada. Black hair, emotionless eyes, and a new feature he hadn't noticed that first night. Two green lines under his eyes, like tear tracks, on his pale skin. Almost as soon as he saw the man quick flashes of the night passed in his head, was this what the man had meant when he said not to get comfortable? For a second the eyes landed on him before turning back to Nnoitra where he emotionless continued to "scold" the man.

Nnoitra scowled and reluctantly yanked his feet off the table, "Just lucky you're a higher number," he grumbled out.

For a second the new man stared blankly at Nnoitra before turning over to Ichigo. "Ulquiorra Schiffer, number 4," he said in that same monotone voice he had been using the whole time.

Ichigo wondered if the man could speak in any other tone of voice or if monotone and boringly creepy was his default setting. Instead Ichigo settled for a weak smile and nod, he really had no idea what the hell to think. Staring at the tabletop Ichigo inspected the really nice lines in it, really was quite expensive looking for a tabletop. Nothing happened for a few minutes, Nnoitra and Szayel continued talking and Ulquiorra sat down another chair and things continued in general quiet.

To say he was nervous would be a horrible understatement, Ichigo could barely keep breathing without thinking of how crazy and stupid this was. Glancing up at the clock Ichigo was a little bit comforted by the sight of the time being 11:48pm, it was almost time for the "meeting" to start. Or whatever this thing was. Glancing quickly at the small room he was a little surprised to see that both Nnoitra and Szayel both had cups of coffee, somewhere in the middle of his gazing at the table they had grabbed some. Three people had showed up, but the numbers went from, so far, 8 to 0. Ichigo wondered exactly what that meant, how many people were in this group.

Before he could get a full grasp on his racing thoughts a new wrench was thrown into the mix. The arrival of another two members, also loudly talking, more so than the first two. It was pretty obvious to see that none of the people in the room appreciated the noise as the newest people entered the slowly filling meeting room. Entering the room first was a woman, dark skinned, yellow hair, green eyes, and probably some of the largest boobs Ichigo had ever seen. Now normally he didn't make a habit of looking at woman's err…assets, but this, well hers were hard to miss. She wore a sweater that covered the lower part of her face but didn't quite cover all of her well you know. Scanning the room her eyes landed on Ichigo and for a second she stared at him before nodding and taking her own seat. Behind her came the second person, the one who had been talking loudly. Loud was also a good word to describe this man. Bright blue hair and equally bright blue eyes, and the guy was…well surprisingly muscular, once again not something Ichigo actively looked for. It was hard to miss when the guy was only wearing a jacket and it was wide open.

Instead of sitting down like the woman the guy eyed Ichigo carefully, "Who the hell are you?" he spat out.

Frowning Ichigo could feel what little bit of him that wasn't on edge grow pissed. Who the hell did this guy think he was, he hadn't even said a word to him and the guy was acting so aggressive, "Ichigo Kurosaki."

Letting out a small noise of acknowledgement he sat down, doing the exact same thing as Nnoitra and setting his feet on the table. "Tch, so you're the brat that Aizen dragged into this fucking screwed up group. Way to go, fucked yourself over didn't ya?" he said with a smirk.

Tightening his fists Ichigo resisted the urge to jump up and try beating the guy over the head until he learned some manners or something. "Seems like I wasn't the only one," he spat back.

The man glared and stood up, "What the hell'd you say," he snapped, looking completely ready to leap across the table and strangle Ichigo.

It was about then that Ichigo realized his mistake, he had antagonized a man who looked like he could break him in half with his bare hands. He was going to reply, before he could though someone beat him to the punch, "Grimmjow calm yourself," it was the woman who had spoken.

Ichigo glanced at her, so far she was the only one who had moved to his side of the table, everyone else had taken their seats on the other side. "You may call me Hallibel," she said calmly, so far seeming like the sanest one of the group so far.

"That fool over there is Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, and you are Ichigo Kurosaki correct?" she asked.

Not seeing the bottom part of her face was actually making Ichigo a little uneasy, but she was being polite so he made an effort to be polite back. She…seemed normal, unfortunately he really didn't have much to say so he just nodded, "Y-yeah, of course you probably knew that," he muttered.

She nodded lightly, "It was in the message," for a second there was silence and once she realized he wouldn't talk again she turned to Ulquiorra and began talking to him instead.

Glancing at the clock Ichigo nervously tapped the tabletop with his fingers, there was only a few minutes left before the meeting was supposed to start. Looking over at Grimmjow he saw that the blue-haired man was still glaring at him angrily. Glaring right back Ichigo couldn't help but feel a little pissed at this man, what the hell had he done to deserve this idiotic treatment? He had met the guy less than five minutes ago and already this Grimmjow guy looked ready to rip him apart.

Turning away Ichigo glared at the wall instead, just looking at the guy was getting on his nerves. Taking a calming breath Ichigo turned his thoughts to less violent ones. Instead of thinking of beating the man across the table into the ground, Ichigo thought of all the other people in the room. So far his opinion was…well to put what he thought simply…these people were insane. They all seemed like they weren't quite right in the head, then again who was he to say that when he probably wasn't right in the head himself. He had killed a man after all.

Sighing Ichigo drummed his finger tips on the table again, trying to pass the time away without seeming too nervous, although his actions pretty much made that useless. The minutes passed slowly Ichigo watching them, every once in a while glancing up at the clock. As soon as the clock turned 12:20am, a high chiming noise sounded through the room and everyone quickly grew silent. Looking around Ichigo was confused to see that no one else seemed bothered by the noise, in fact they acted like it was normal.

Almost as soon as the chime sounded everyone had straightened out, sat up semi-straight and looked like they were actually paying attention. Ichigo quickly copied their movements and looked as alert as he could at almost 12:30 at night. It didn't take more than a few seconds more for Aizen to enter the room.

Looking around he smiled as he sat at the end chair, which Ichigo had noticed looked different than the rest. More…decretive than the others so Ichigo had avoided sitting in it. Aizen smiled and looked at the people gather in the room, "Well, I'm rather surprised at how many of you showed. A little restless from not having any jobs lately?" no one said anything and after a second Aizen continued, "As you all know this is an introductory meeting for Ichigo Kurosaki, our newest member. But before we begin…how about some tea?"

Ichigo frowned, insane was putting it lightly.

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AN: Okay so umm...first off I spelled Ulquiorra's last name Schiffer instead of Cifer, because...err...well no offense but I prefer the spelling of Schiffer to Cifer. I hope no one minds. But if enough people complain then I will be more than willing to change it to Cifer...sorry. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Things will be speeding up from here on out, having introduced a few of the Espada and all that. I uh...hope that I've at least kept them semi in character...umm...but yeah. I'm sorry if I messed up somewhere but again any questions, comments, complaints would be nice to hear. I love hearing any comments...so yeah...thank you for reading this story.


	5. Everyone Loves the Tea

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach  
Rated M: Again for the violence and swearing which uh...sort of shows up a bit more in this chapter...

* * *

  
Staring into his teacup Ichigo frowned, it…well it didn't look that good. Glancing up his eyes followed he man handing out the tea. Seconds after Aizen had said "tea" the man had come in with a tray filled with cups and a tea pot. Ichigo had thought Nnoitra was creepy but this man took the cake. Short silver-y lavender hair and as for what color his eyes were, Ichigo couldn't tell. The whole time the man had been the room they'd been shut tightly, combine that with the large smile he had been wearing as well the guy practically screamed of creepiness. It also seemed he wasn't the only who thought that, as soon as the guy had entered a palpable sense of unease had covered the room.

From his seat Aizen took his own cup off the tray, and took a sip. Sighing he smiled at the rest of the group at the table, "Well, drink up."

Hesitantly Ichigo picked up his cup and took a sip. As soon as the flavor hit his sense Ichigo coughed and spit the stuff back into the cup. It was probably the nastiest stuff he had ever tasted! "Is something wrong Ichigo?"

Aizen's words caused Ichigo to look up uneasily. The man was staring at him with the smallest of frowns, and he definitely didn't look happy. Shaking his head Ichigo looked back at his tea, which looked even nastier than before now that he knew what it tasted like. Deciding to just get it over with Ichigo grabbed onto the cup, took a deep breath and then drank the whole cup in one swallow. Resisting the urge to gag Ichigo grimaced and set his cup down, there was just as disgusting of an aftertaste.

"Seems he don't like yer tea," the man who had passed out the tea finally spoke, an accent of some sort just made the guy even more strange.

"Nonsense Gin. You liked it didn't you Ichigo?" Aizen asked pleasantly enough.

Nodding Ichigo muttered a quiet, "Was delicious," which was a complete lie, but saying that the tea was probably the nastiest thing he had ever tasted probably wasn't the best of ideas at the moment.

Aizen turned to the other man, Gin. "See. Everyone enjoys the tea," turning back he sipped his own tea, then setting the cup down addressed the rest of them, "Now that we've gotten that over with. Shall we start with this introductory meeting?"

Ichigo didn't say anything, but then again neither did anyone else. As it turned out there seemed to be a lot of rhetorical questions in this meeting. Looking around the room Ichigo didn't notice anyone else saying anything instead they were all looking at Aizen patiently…well most of then anyways. Turning back to Aizen Ichigo tried his best to pay attention.

"As we all know it was quite unfortunate when our former number 0 died," small pause where no one said anything but someone coughed something that sounded very similar to 'good riddance' which Aizen ignored with grace, "AS much as we would like to mourn our loss we don't have time. Instead of mourning out losses though we shall celebrate our gains. Ichigo Kurosaki is our newest member, replacing Yammy as our number 0. I congratulate you all for showing your support by showing up," he said smiling again.

Ichigo frowned, how many people were there exactly? It couldn't be too many people if the small group of people was "many". As for the support thing, did Aizen even read the text? It definitely didn't sound friendly, at all. But here Aizen was acting like it was some tea party he was the host of. "Now as we all know Ichigo is woefully ignorant to what he's supposed to do. I've saved that special information for tonight. I thought that perhaps he'd like to see some of the people he'd be working with, the turnout was much better than I anticipated," Aizen said looking over the gather people carefully.

That was probably the only silver lining Ichigo could see at the moment. Here he was surrounded by…assassins…and some psycho business man and his tea serving lackey, and as surreal as it was he could only see one silver lining. He'd be figuring out what was expected of him. Swallowing nervously Ichigo waited anxiously to hear what was going to come next, which was hopefully something relevant to his current interests.

"Since there are so many it makes this question I'm about to ask much easier. As I mentioned Ichigo is undereducated, I thought that the best teacher would be a…tutor of sorts. Someone who could go with him on the first few missions and help him along. Now I'd rather not force anyone into doing this so I'm going to politely ask those gather to think about this and volunteer if they so chose. What they'd be volunteering to is to help Ichigo out on his first few missions, teach him the ropes so to say," Aizen paused, and looked them over.

He wasn't the only one though, Ichigo also glanced at the group. One of these people was…going to be teaching him. To what!? Kill people? You actually needed to be taught to do that! Glancing Ichigo saw that so far no one was raising their hand or making any signal of volunteering. Nnoitra and Szayel were two people he definitely didn't want to teach him anything, they seemed more apt to hurt him. Grimmjow just seemed like he'd shove him off the nearest building at the moment. As for Ulquiorra and Hallibel…they didn't seem too bad, but he didn't know any of them very well at all so this was just on basic appearances. Glancing back up at Aizen, Ichigo was a little surprised to see the man frowning.

"No volunteers at all?" he shook his head and took a small sip of tea, "I expected better from you all. If no one volunteers there will be consequences…" he said coldly, as for what the 'consequences' would be he didn't say.

Just seconds after he said that someone spoke, "If no one else will volunteer I will," everyone glanced over at Ulquiorra who was the one who spoke.

Aizen smiled, "Ah of course Ulquiorra. Once again you've proven yourself beyond useful," he said cheerfully.

Distinctly Ichigo could hear someone mutter 'suck-up' before Aizen continued his little 'speech', "Now that we've gotten that out of the way how about we let the guest of honor take the floor," almost as if on cue everyone turned to Ichigo, "Now don't be shy, introduce yourself," Aizen said, it sounded like encouragement but Ichigo was fairly certain it was more of a command than a request.

Refusing to stutter or seem like a fool Ichigo composed himself before speaking, "Um…I'm Ichigo Kurosaki," he searched for anything that seemed appropriate to say in this situation, "I'm 15, I go to high school and I used to be fairly normal," he said a little coldly, he really didn't want to reveal too much.

Up at the front of the table Aizen chuckled, "Interesting way of putting it. Very well, any questions for our newest member before we move on?"

Ichigo felt a little annoyed, what the hell would they want to ask him? "Ah yes Nnoitra, go right ahead," Aizen pointed at the eye patched man when he raised his hand.

"Don't mean to pry. But how'd you kill Yammy? No one really told us this one, and I thought I'd ask since most high school students don't normally kill people," he asked, a wide smirk appearing as he asked the question.

Scowling Ichigo glared at Nnoitra, "Stabbed him," he replied coldly, apparently the man wasn't done trying to bait him yet.

Nnoitra grinned, "Is that so? My, my such a violent way to go. Didn't know you-"

"Come now Nnoitra I'm sure there are other questions people want to ask," Aizen interrupted smoothly.

For a second it looked like Nnoitra was going to say something else but instead the man just scoffed and turned away. Ichigo glared at him still, what the hell had that been about? So far he'd done nothing but be quiet and unassuming. All these guys were doing was enforcing his budding plan to get the hell out of this situation…and as fast as he could.

When no one else raised their hands Aizen sighed, "Oh very well. You've all been so quiet today, if I didn't know any better I'd say none of you actually wanted to be here," he said filling up his cup with more tea.

After taking a sip of his tea Aizen sighed, "If you all insist on skipping the pleasantries then I will begin. Considering Tousen is on vacation today Gin will do the visuals," he said calmly.

The lights dimmed, looking around Ichigo quickly spotted Gin who pulled down a projection screen. Still smiling the man went back over towards Aizen and set up a projector. Ichigo watched curiously as Gin spent the next five minutes trying to turn on the projector, with Aizen adding his input ever few seconds until Szayel stood up and turned the thing on. "Oh is that how ya do it?" Gin asked brightly.

"A blind man figured it out, you seriously didn't know how?" Grimmjow grumbled.

Ichigo blinked, a…blind man? His attention was torn when the presentation started. A very large picture of a skyscraper was on the screen, "This is Genedustries blueprints. Not the most creative name, but as it implies they deal with Genetics. They have risen very quickly to be one of the top contenders in the business in fact. Too quickly. Some question of foul play has been raised by this man."

The picture changed with a small click and instead of the building it was a rather pudgy looking man. Short and round, slicked back black hair and a business suit. He wasn't looking at the camera and instead was talking to someone giving Ichigo the impression the guy hadn't been aware the photo was even being taken. "This is the man that hired us to investigate Genedustries for…foul play so to say. He's willing to pay handsomely for this and we are more than willing to do this job. It's a simple sort of thing and in fact is a rather easy job after that dry spell that we found ourselves in this month."

Another picture change, another man only this one was different. An older man, white hair, business suit and he had a cane in the picture. Similar to the last one it seemed the guy was unaware he was getting his photo taken, and if the two very large bodyguards who were just standing there were any indication…neither did they. "This is our target. He's the vice president of Genedustries. Most of his information is in the file and privileged only to those going on this mission, as easy as it is the information is sensitive and we wouldn't like a mishap like last time…" there was a silence for a few seconds that Ichigo thought seemed more than just a little uncomfortable.

"Normally I don't show mission information like this unless it's rather large or everyone is here. I've already decided to have Ichigo go on this mission, but I would like a volunteer to help out," the picture changed again, it looked like blueprints, "This is the Genedustries, given to us generously by our clients. Guards patrol daily at intervals, the most common routes are marked. As you can tell there are a lot of them, so someone who perhaps wouldn't mind a confrontation to two would be best."

Moving on to the next picture it showed a large house, "This is our target's home. If need be we will use this as the point of attack instead of the office. He has a wife, and a dog I believe but no children in the house. Making it slightly easier if anything, as always we don't plan to harm the family if we don't have to. The client has offered a bonus if we make it an accidental death of some sort," Aizen paused and one more click revealed the last picture the old man shaking hands with a nervous looking man, hat pulled down low, coat collar pulled high enough so you couldn't see his face, "Our clients accusations haven't been unfounded as you can see. With this it solidifies our job. After all we don't kill anyone without proper evidence or reason."

As soon as those words were said the lights turned back on, "Now would anyone else like to volunteer for this mission?" Aizen asked.

Seconds after those words came out of his mouth Grimmjow's hand shot into the air, "You said there'd be fighting right?" he asked quickly.

"I didn't explicitly say that, but more than likely there could be a fight occurring," Aizen answered calmly, "Why? Are you volunteering Grimmjow?"

Nodding the blue haired man leaned back in his chair, "Why the hell not, ain't going to kill me. Besides…sounds fun," he said with a smirk.

Cheerfully Aizen motioned to Gin, "Fill everyone's cups. This calls for a toast I believe," the other man snickered and quickly went about filling everyone's cup.

Glaring at the murky water Aizen tried to pass off as tea Ichigo hesitantly lifted his own cup when everyone else did. "To those off on our first mission in months. May they be safe," there was some mutters of agreement and almost as one the group drank the tea.

Forcing back the coughing fit that threatened to come up Ichigo wondered briefly if it would ever get easier to drink that. "With that, this meeting is adjourned. Until next time," Aizen said calmly.

Aizen stood up, as did everyone else. One last polite smile and Aizen left the room, Gin following behind with the tray of tea items, still grinning like he had the whole meeting. When the two left the room an invisible weight seemed to be lifted, or so it seemed to Ichigo anyways. "Do you have any prior fighting experience?"

Jumping Ichigo turned quickly to Ulquiorra who was the one who spoke, "Wh-what?"

And he had been doing such a good job of not stuttering too. The emotionless man frowned a little, "Do you have any prior fighting experience," he repeated in the same tone as before.

"Uh…no. I don't, why?" Ichigo asked hesitantly.

"All of us are trained in different fighting techniques. To keep you up to par it would be best if you had some training as well. Preferable someplace that isn't well known and doesn't have a lot of clients but is a reasonable place that actually trains you in what it's trying to teach," he replied.

The only thing Ichigo could think of to say was "oh…" which really wasn't much at all so he turned to something different, "So uh…can we go home now?" he asked hesitantly.

Ulquiorra just shook his head and muttering something turned and left the room. Looking around quickly Ichigo saw that he was actually the only one left in the meeting room. Feeling a little stupid Ichigo quickly left the room, paused, went back and turned off the lights and then hurried down the hall. After re-finding his way through the kitchen Ichigo pushed open the door separating the kitchen and main part and was surprised if not a little nervous to see Hallibel standing by the exit.

Looking around Ichigo didn't see anyone else standing around, "Ah Ichigo, I was waiting for you," she said.

"Why?" the words were out of his mouth before he could actually stop and think about what exactly he had said.

Hallibel shook her head, "It's almost 2am, but if you really want to walk home this late then go right ahead."

Ichigo shook his head quickly, "No!" he paused, "I mean…if it's not too much trouble."

"I'm offering you idiot," she replied, opening the door and walking outside.

Moving quickly Ichigo followed after her. It didn't take him that long to catch up to her and Ichigo silently walked behind her a little bit. Turning the corner they arrived in a parking lot and parked in one of the spaces was a really expensive looking bright yellow car. Of course then he noticed that leaning up against the car was Grimmjow. Hallibel frowned, "If you're looking for a ride I'm not giving you one, we already discussed this earlier," she said coldly.

"Like hell we did! You fucking stole my parking spot, crushed my car, and got it impounded!" Grimmjow snapped, walking up to them angrily, "I at least deserve a goddamn ride home."

For a second it looked like Hallibel was going to hit Grimmjow but instead she just sighed, "You managed to shrink all my clothes yet you here you are still asking for a ride."

Ichigo raised an eyebrow, "How'd he do that?"

"None of your business brat," Grimmjow snapped.

Hallibel rubbed her forehead, "If I remember correctly he actually asked a dry cleaner how to," she muttered.

Before Grimmjow could say anything though the blonde woman cut him off quickly, "I really don't care anymore. I'm tired and have to working the morning. Both of you get in the car," Hallibel snapped, walking over to her car and unlocking the doors.

Not one to turn down a free ride Ichigo got into the car and suddenly felt very…very insignificant. If the inside of this car was anything to go by, then he was currently sitting in a car that seemed worth double what the clinic made in a year. Nervously he buckled up and seconds later the car started and they drove out of the parking lot. At first it was really quiet, no one said anything and in fact it seemed like Grimmjow was sulking up in the front seat.

Eventually though Hallibel started up a quick conversation, "So Ichigo, what do you think of the Espada so far? Don't worry, neither of us will judge you," she reassured him.

It didn't do much but Ichigo hesitantly offered up a little of his opinion, "Uh…so far? I think everyone is a little crazy," he muttered.

Grimmjow gave a short laugh, "Just a little? Fuck, everyone in there is crazy enough to fuck up a psychiatrist."

"Including you?"

"Craziest of the them all," Grimmjow replied, making it seem like more of a compliment than an insult.

Ichigo shook his head, "Whatever you say," he muttered, "So…uh…what do you do outside of this…job?"

Answering first was Hallibel, "I work as a model, I'm surprised you haven't seen my picture somewhere. Then again it is more towards the female viewers."

That was mildly surprising, he had not been expecting to hear that she was a model. It was strange to think that someone perfectly normal on the outside could be a…a killer. "I do odd jobs. Right now I'm a bouncer," Grimmjow muttered.

On the other hand that wasn't as surprising. Even though Ichigo didn't know Grimmjow very well he could tell that the man enjoyed violence more than just a little bit. Sighing Ichigo leaned back in his seat. "Is Aizen usually that…" Ichigo paused as he tried to figure out the right word to describe the man.

"Idiotic, asshole-ish, such a dick? Plenty of words to describe that bastard," Grimmjow spat out angrily, "If half the people ha-" before Grimmjow could finish though Hallibel smacked his head into the window.

She gave him a quick glare, "Watch what you say Jaegerjaquez," she snapped.

Muttering something the blue-haired man rubbed his head but didn't continue whatever he was saying. Ichigo wisely chose not to try and start the issue back up and instead fell silent and the rest of the car ride was passed in quiet. Eventually though the car pulled to a stop, "Alright this is your house, right?"

Glancing out the window Ichigo nodded, that was his house. Opening the door he got out and said a quick thank you. Hallibel smiled, "It was nice meeting you Ichigo."

"I'd say the same but I'd sort of be lying," Ichigo replied.

Grimmjow laughed again, "Ain't you just a little jackass. Let's get the fuck outta here Hallibel," he muttered.

Shaking her head they drove off and Ichigo stood there on the side of the road for a few seconds. Eventually though he turned and walked to his house, unlocked the door, walked inside and sighed tiredly. He had spent two hours in hell if anything. Shutting the door behind him he locked it and walked up the stairs to his room. Changing into his pjs Ichigo collapsed into his bed. Closing his eyes Ichigo started drifting off to sleep…until a new thought came into his head.

He hadn't mentioned where he lived.

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AN: Sorry I didn't update this one time. I didn't quite get it proof-read until just earlier today. I hope that once again I managed to do a good job and ummm...that you enjoyed it. I hope that you all enjoy this, I actually rather liked writing it. As I noticed there's quite a bit of dialouge in here...hmm...I don't know if that's a good thing or not...-sigh- anyways, I don't really have much left to say here. Can't make exact promises to get it up on time but I'll try my best...

Remember any Suggestions, Questions, Comments, Concerns or Complaints direct them to management using the little review button down below. Thank you once again for reading this story.


	6. It All Begins Again

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach  
Rated M- For violence and language

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That night he got a total of about four hours of sleep and then his paranoia and the fact it was morning kept him from trying to sleep a little more. The morning actually went alright, if you discarded the fact he kept locking and relocking the back door about ten times in one hour. He only stopped when Karin began complaining and trying to get him to reveal why he was being so paranoid. Ichigo spent the morning trying to figure out what had happened last night exactly. There had been that crazy meeting, introductions to all those people, his co-workers apparently, and then…well the ride and comment had been the icing on the creepiness cake for sure.

Of course then there was the whole little conversation he had with Ulquiorra. Sighing Ichigo wandered his house, normally he'd be having fun with his friends but today. Stopping in front of his room he pushed open the door and glanced at the phone laying on his desk. Walking up to it he picked it up, opened it, comforted himself with the fact he had 'No new messages' and then closed the phone and walked away. Repeat every twenty minutes or so. He didn't know what exactly he was looking for when he opened the phone only to see it was the same as it had been twenty minutes ago. But it did keep him from repeatedly locking the doors.

Eventually though the pacing got old and Karin yelled at him again and so reluctantly Ichigo took a seat on the couch next to his sisters. For the most part he remained there, only once and a while glancing up towards the stairs but Karin's angry glare kept him rooted to his seat. The rest of the afternoon passed in general laziness, Ichigo eventually actually relaxing and watching what was on the television instead of trying to think up a solution to his problem. Something he had been trying to figure out since he had gotten himself into this mess.

In fact the whole day passed in relative ease after that. After they finished their show Yuzu cooked dinner while the two of them remained watching television. Dinner came and went and for the rest of the evening they watched television, his sisters briefly grabbing their homework only to bring it back downstairs and finish it up in the living room. It was a rather pleasant change in fact from the last week where Ichigo had holed himself up in his room in hopes of trying to figure a solution, ignoring his sisters and acting more than just a little unnecessarily ornery towards them. Having a nice quiet evening like this was…nice.

He couldn't completely forget the problem though, it hung in the back of his mind like a black cloud, angry and threatening. Ichigo did manage to ignore it successfully and by the time his sisters went to bed he had practically exhausted himself. All the pacing, worrying, lack of sleep, and panicked thinking was not helping his health any and frankly he was a little surprised he hadn't made himself sick yet. Of course…he had always been the sort of person to take on problems that weren't his own and try to help others. If karma existed it better have had a damn good reason for why he was getting in so much trouble.

Sighing Ichigo wandered up to his room, only after triple checking the locks and walking through the entire house once of course. Laying on his bed Ichigo stared at his ceiling for a few seconds, he knew he had to check it at least once more before he went to bed but…looking at his desk Ichigo stared at the little white phone. He was slowly starting to hate that color. Grabbing the device he flipped it open and almost winced when he saw the little screen, 'Three New Messages'.

After steeling himself for whatever would come he went to his messages. At fist he relaxed a little when he saw that none of them were from Aizen but…here he frowned a little. Instead of a name there was just a number. The number 4, Ulquiorra. The first two were from him but the third was different, instead of a little number 4 there was a number 3, Hallibel. Confused he went to her message first, the little timestamp said it had been sent sometime around 1pm, sort of strange. Opening it he quickly skimmed her message, it was rather short and simple.

_0, Wanted to make sure you're still alive. Also I'm not sure if 4 will be a very good teacher for you. He's rather hard to get along with. Also he seems to forget the simple things. I'll talk to Master Aizen -3 p.s. only use numbers, no names_

Staring at it for a few seconds Ichigo felt what little hope he had slowly sink into the ground. If the only semi-nice sort of sane person from that meeting last night was warning him…it really wasn't looking all that good for him. Sighing he deleted her message, like he'd been told, and continued on to the other two messages. The first was rather to the point.

_I expect you to be at the 11__th__ training facility after you finish your schooling. Simple mention my real name and they'll point you in the right direction. Do not be late, we have much to cover if you are to be ready by the deadline. Considering this is your first mission I will have you do very little, this will be the only time I shall do that. If we work together in the future I expect you to carry your weight. -4_

For a few seconds Ichigo stared at the message. Was he supposed to understand the message? 11th training facility? Was that an actual name or some kind of code he was supposed to figure out. Sighing he realized he'd actually have to look up the address if he wanted to be on time, lateness didn't seem an option with this guy. In fact Ichigo almost wanted to bet that if he didn't show Ulquiorra would end up at his front door to drag him to training. Either that or tattle on him to Aizen. Either way he'd be forced to train. Turning to the last message he looked at that, hoping that maybe it'd hold a few answers or at least a hint or something.

_Number 0 as I'm sure you are aware this mission will ultimately decide your fate. Should you fail, then more than likely Aizen will terminate your employment. It would be in your best interest not to have that happen, which is why I'm getting paid to do this. Your job for this mission is simple, look up our target and gather as much information as you can. The internet is rather helpful. -4_

For a few seconds Ichigo stared at the phone. Who the hell was he supposed to look up again? Was he seriously supposed to remember?! Groaning he rubbed his head, he could feel a huge headache coming on. Getting fired didn't seem too bad, but in all reality getting fired by Aizen was probably a synonym for getting gutted like a fish. Putting his phone down Ichigo sighed and picked up a piece of paper, he'd write down all the names he remembered…hopefully…one of them would be the 'target'.

Sometime during the night he fell asleep at his desk, names scratched out and rewritten different ways all over the paper. He had failed to find the name that he was apparently supposed to know, and instead had just ended up spelling all of the names he'd heard. The only good thing that came out of his empty search was the lack of dreams, instead of having his usual nightmare he hadn't dreamed anything, a good change in his mind.

Waking up to his alarm Ichigo peeled the paper off his face, staring at it tiredly before crumpling it up and throwing it away, then turning off his alarm as he walked out of his room. He had school to get ready for and an address to look up and not a lot of time to waste. That morning was probably one of the fastest he got ready for, and for good reason. It took him the rest of the time to even get a basic location on this '11th division training facility', which really wasn't a good name to work off of. The best he could find was a building in one of the worst neighborhoods in town called…well 'The 11th Division' which seemed right, but he wouldn't know until he got there.

School went surprisingly well considering he was on edge the whole day. He was noticeably twitchy and it was hard to force himself to calm down around his friends, he managed though…well at least he thought he did. Lunch had been the worst, with no work to focus on and keep him awake his exhaustion started catching up to him. He had almost fallen asleep until Orihime had started talking to him, keeping him up and awake, which was a good thing. If he had fallen asleep in the middle of the day people would ask him about why he was so tired which would lead to more lies…something he didn't want to have to keep doing if he could help it. Then again he wasn't in such a position to have much control right now.

As soon as the last bell rang Ichigo stood up and stretched, he had about twenty minutes to get to the bus stop and catch a ride to the far end of town and then about a ten minute walk to this '11th Division' place, hopefully he wouldn't miss the bus, walking all the way there was not something he wanted to do right now. Successfully maneuvering his way through the crowd of leaving students Ichigo managed to leave without being spotted by his friends, well at least as far as he knew. Making it to the bus stop was easy, with time to spare he got himself a seat near the front and took out some of his homework to get done on the ride there. He had a slight feeling that this training was not going to end up with him having a lot of free time afterward.

Focused on his work so much he almost missed his stop, almost. Noticing at the last second he ignored the glare the bus driver gave him as he hurried off the bus, also ignoring the angry muttering the man said as well. Shoving his work back in his bag Ichigo took a piece of paper out of his pocket, on it was a quickly scrawled map and basic directions. Not that he needed it horribly much, looking around Ichigo noticed a few places from his memory. A few times Chad and him had been down here, and a lot of it looked sort of familiar. Walking slowly down the street Ichigo followed the basic directions, avoiding some of the places he knew would end up in a fight if he was so much as seen in that area.

In the end Ichigo ended up standing in front of a large building, that…well considering the surroundings actually looked really nice. The front was a simple wooden door and a wall, no windows, just a sign by the door reading 'The 11th Division', and that was it. No open or close sign, no way to see if this place was even still running, no window…just a door. Taking a breath Ichigo relaxed himself and opened the door, unknowingly stepping into probably one of the weirdest places on earth. Inside was just as simple as the front door, it was a little room with very little furniture. There were two chairs, a few plants and then a desk. Behind the desk were two doors, the one on the left said 'Do Not Enter on Pain of Death' with what looked to be green crayon in childish handwriting, and on the right door was a sign reading 'Welcome' in the same handwriting. Both signs were covered in scribbles of flowers and skull and crossbones in the color pink. At the desk sat a single person, at the moment Ichigo couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman.

Short black hair, and a sort of feminine face which in itself wasn't that confusing, but throw in the feather decoration on the eye and just the general way they were sitting…it was mildly confusing at first. Until he spoke that is, "Can I help you?" definitely male, which now that Ichigo was looked a little closer, seemed pretty obvious.

"Um y-yeah," Ichigo mentally hit himself, he wasn't in any danger he didn't need to stutter, "I'm looking for a Ulquiorra Schiffer?" he said, taking a few more steps inside the building which seemed pretty safe.

Almost like flipping a switch the man went from polite to disappointed, "Oh," he sighed, "Your with that deadbeat? That's not beautiful at all," he muttered, mostly to himself it seemed.

Not really knowing what to say Ichigo went with the safe response, "I'm sorry?"

The man shook his head, "Not your fault I suppose. First time here, obviously, I would have seen you otherwise," he frowned and looked Ichigo over carefully.

Shuffling uncomfortably Ichigo cleared his throat, "Listen can you just point me in the right direction? I really don't want to be late," he said, trying not to sound as nervous as he felt, it seemed like he got the right place but what if he was late?

"Oh of course," standing the man put a little sign on the desk that said 'Be back whenever' in loopy cursive letters that actually took Ichigo a few seconds to decipher, "Follow me please," he said and with a little hum the man opened the door that said 'Welcome'.

Following after him Ichigo's eyes widened as they entered the huge room behind the tiny lobby. It might have been because he had just exited from a rather small room into a much larger one, but it looked huge! Scattered throughout the room were various workout stations, punching bags, what looked to be a boxing ring, a group of people doing various stances, people fighting with swords, people fighting hand to hand. The whole room looked like it was in a state of chaos, there wasn't a person not doing anything, everyone was doing something whether it was holding up something, training, cheering on those fighting, no one was standing quiet. It was…well it was exciting! "As you can see, we're a large mix of various fighting styles. We welcome most, but we try to be fairly exclusive so nothing, how would most people put it, so no one unenthused about fighting can get into our establishment," the man nodded, "Yes that sounds about right."

Staring blankly at the man Ichigo wondered what exactly this place was. Unenthused? This guy didn't look all that strong but then again he had learned long ago not to judge people by just their looks. Instead he nodded hesitantly, hoping that would be enough of an answer.

For a second the man just stared at him, then he nodded, "I'm glad you agree. Well shut the door and follow me," he said curtly and turned and started walking along the wall.

Shutting the door quickly Ichigo followed after him. He sort of wanted to ask why they were walking along the very square room's walls and not just straight through the middle, but decided against it. This guy was a little…strange, and Ichigo still didn't even know the guy's name. "We have all the main stuff going on in the middle, so going right through it is often very dangerous. I'm not sure if you'd make it through without being late to this…appointment you have with Schiffer. Plus going along the edges brings you to the back faster."

Apparently the man had waited for him after a few steps, "Most of the…classes take place towards the center of the room. The heavier the material, the more to the center the class is. The outer fringes have the weakest and quietest classes, the ones that are easiest to walk by without being called in to demonstrate," he explained as they started walking again.

Hearing this Ichigo quickened his pace a little so he was walking closer, not for protection of course…just you know, so he wouldn't get lost…in a square room. This place really was pretty interesting. Twice they had to stop as someone was thrown into their path, one on the floor in front of them, the second into the wall. Both times the guys had just glanced at the man and paled before moving their 'lesson' elsewhere, a little farther away. It was…strange. Eventually though they made it to the back of the square room. They had reached the corner and looking around Ichigo saw that the room looked the same from this spot as well, the only difference being the view of the fights. Ichigo couldn't see any doors that would lead into a quieter place, because Ichigo really doubted that Ulquiorra would be training him out here.

"Aren't you coming Kurosaki?"

Turning Ichigo was stunned to see a door now opened up, how could he have missed that? Seconds ago it had just been a blank wall at a corner, now there was a door and the man was looking at him impatiently, holding the door open, waiting for him to enter. Moving quickly Ichigo entered the room and the door was shut behind him. A small click was heard and just like that the room was blissfully silent again, just like in the lobby. "Are these rooms soundproof?" Ichigo asked.

The man smiled brightly, looking both pleased and surprised, "Yes they are actually! Most of the men here haven't even realized that yet. First time here and you've noticed, pretty observant of you. Then again it isn't exactly a hard observation to make now is it?"

Nodding slightly Ichigo didn't quite know if the guy was making fun of him or was being serious. It really hadn't been a hard observation to make, the large square room had been so loud he could barely hear himself think and it had been hard to catch what the guy was saying. Which was probably why they hadn't talked much on the way here. Looking around Ichigo realized this room was fairly similar to the lobby, it was a simple room. More plants, a few more chairs, but this time no desk and instead of two doors there was a just a single doorway that looked like it exited into a hallway of sorts. "Schiffer has room 3 which is the last room in the hallway, do you need me to lead the way or can you find it yourself?" the man asked, pointing to the doorway.

Ichigo shook his head, "No, I can find it myself. Thanks for getting me here uh…" he hesitated, he still didn't know the man's name.

Picking up on it easily the man filled in, "Yumichika Ayasegawa, and nothing to it. If I didn't we'd never get any customers here other than the normal lackeys. No one seems to realize that this place does have bills to pay," he frowned but then quickly brightened into another smile, "Enough about that though, you don't want to be late to your appointment."

Before Ichigo could even think of anything to say Yumichika had already left the little room and then he was alone again. Very much so alone. For a second he stood there, eventually though he turned and walked through the doorway and into the hallway. It was, like the rest of this place, strange yet simple. It was a straight hallway that probably followed the wall of the large square room. Unlike the other places though it was decorated, tasteful pieces were on the wall with the doors, filling in the space between them. There were only three doors, and they were spaced a large ways apart, but in between them on the walls were decorations. Something he hadn't really expected, and it was mildly distracting. A few times Ichigo paused to stare at a painting, or a explosively colorful fan, and there was even a large set of feather set to look like a painting but were clearly feathers.

He made it to room three, which was clearly labeled with a very fancy gold number, on an equally nice door. This whole hallway was definitely made to impress whoever came to visit, Ichigo didn't know about anyone else, but it was kind of working. He had other things to think about though, like the training session he was about to enter. Staring at the doorknob for a few seconds Ichigo tossed about the idea of just leaving, but just as quickly he tossed it out - just leaving wouldn't get him anywhere.

Steeling himself Ichigo opened the door and entered the room. Once again he was left stunned. It, like the rest of this place, was a square sort of room. To the left there was a low lying table, and four cushions set out, one for each side, just a little further down from that table was a jutting wall with a door, what that led to he didn't know. The rest of the room was like the large square training room, open and now that Ichigo was paying attention, mildly springy and probably cushioned. On the farthest wall from him was one other door, what that led to, again, Ichigo didn't really know. The only thing that Ichigo really noticed was the fact that the room was…well empty, of people that is.

Closing the door behind him Ichigo walked around the fairly large room until finally just sitting down on one of the cushions. Looking for a source to tell time he was a little disappointed to see that there was none, so instead he took out his phone. Setting the white cell phone on the table he stared at it for a few seconds, then he grabbed it, opened the phone and checked the time. He was…well maybe not on time exactly, but he was close enough, but that still didn't explain where Ulquiorra was. Yumichika had talked like he was already here so then were was he? Before Ichigo could really form a theory the door on the jutting wall opened up and Ulquiorra stepped out.

Not bothering to say anything Ulquiorra walked to the main door, locked it and then walked to the table and stared down at Ichigo for a few seconds. The silence seemed to stretch on for an uncomfortably long time, "Go change in the bathroom, there are clothes in there for you."

Not wanting to do anything wrong, yet, Ichigo got up quickly and went into the room Ulquiorra just left. Surprisingly it was a very nice, very large bathroom. It was green, various shades of green tiles made up the inside of the room. It was kind of cool actually, the various colors made up different spirals and designs on the floor and on the half-tiled wall. A shower to the left, and a large bath on the right, a large mirror hung over the sink, a toilet, a few cabinets, all with a sort of matching green shade color scheme. Closing the door behind him Ichigo looked for the clothes that Ulquiorra had mentioned and quickly spotted them, white was easy to see in this room.

Changing quickly Ichigo was surprised at how well they fit, they fit perfectly. It was…well mildly creepy in fact. The clothes themselves were simple, a t-shirt and a pair of loose sweatpants, pure white in color. Folding his clothes up Ichigo exited the room and looked at Ulquiorra, who was calmly sitting at the table, doing something on his own phone. It was about then that Ichigo realized he wasn't the only one with an Aizen-issued phone, but as he looked at Ulquiorra's phone he was mildly surprised at how different the two phones were.

Unlike his own simple and white phone, Ulquiorra's was a deep shade of green, and looked like it cost three times as much as his, it seemed so much nicer than his. "You can leave the clothes in the bathroom," Ulquiorra said without looking up.

Doing as the other man said Ichigo put his clothes back and went back into the main room, shutting the door behind him and stood awkwardly for a few minutes. Eventually though Ulquiorra shut his phone and put it on the table. Standing up Ulquiorra walked into the large open space, Ichigo following behind a little lost at what he was supposed to do. Stopping Ulquiorra turned and looked at him carefully, Ichigo noticed that he was wearing the same thing he was only instead of a t-shirt it was a long sleeved shirt, another difference between them perhaps. Again nothing was said and Ichigo stood there awkwardly, this time though it lasted longer and the only reason it broke was because Ichigo got too nervous, "So should I be doing anything?" he asked.

Nodding Ulquiorra turned and walked to the door in the training area. Opening it up Ulquiorra stepped inside and a few seconds later came back out, closing the door behind him. Then he tossed Ichigo something, which he caught on instinct alone. It was a pair of gloves, sparring gloves, like some of the people in the main room might have had on. Feeling a little unsettled he put them on and looked at Ulquiorra who already had his on and was waiting for him. "Are you ready now?"

Ichigo frowned, "For what?"

"To begin," Ulquiorra answered, his voice really was fairly emotionless.

Shifting so that he was favoring one side Ichigo looked at the gloves he had on, this was all he was going to get? "Shouldn't we…I don't know, have some headgear on or something?" he asked.

"I will avoid hitting above the neck."

"What about you?" Ichigo asked confused.

This seemed to amuse Ulquiorra, or it might have, it was kind of hard to tell when the guy's face stayed so blank, but his tone suddenly seemed a little more amused, "I don't think you need to worry about that."

Ichigo opened his mouth to say something else but was cut off with a quick, "Begin," and with that one word his training had begun.

* * *

A/N: Right...well uh...long time no see everyone? Sorry about the whole lack of updates, I sort of lost inspiration BUT it has returned! I apologize for not updating sooner but I couldn't quite gather my wits enough to get a full chapter out. This one is slightly longer than the rest...err...but not by much. Sorry again for not updating. I plan to update a little more regularly from now on. Once again I do apologize, for the first two weeks I had a real reason (my laptop was being repaired) but after that it was pure laziness and for that I apologize. But I'm back and more on task than ever. If all goes well in two chapters we'll really start getting down to the action.

Any questions about my story, any comments, complaints or concerns, please direct them to management using the button down below. Please and thank you, all feedback is appreciated. Thank you so, so, so much for reading my story.


	7. AN: Farewell Readers

**AN:**Okay~ so who was waiting for a wonderful update? Right…well I'm very sorry but this…this is not an update. Well it is-just not in the chapter, story, moving along sort of update. In case you haven't caught on by the ah…huge lag of um…WELL I haven't been updating. That's the point. I haven't and this isn't an update. Sorry…

I could put a crap ton of how sorry I am, and that I promise I'll get around to writing some more, etc, etc, but that would be lying. And I would be lying if I said I wasn't a liar. So ah…actually the point of this is to tell you not to expect an update (not that you have…unless you were? Then wow, you have a lot of faith in me and I feel like shit for disappointing you…man…).

Like some people, I can really sort of only focus my attention on one ah…series. Bleach is no longer that series. I only have like…what? The first three sentences of the next chapter done. Unless Bleach somehow catches my attention again or makes another movie that I can get excited about- I probably won't be returning for a while. To the fandom that is. I DO have stories that I can write…just not…Bleach stories.

I really am sorry. Maybe someday I'll keep going at this…until then this story is kinda…well dead. Maybe someone could adopt this guy? Or…we could stick a fork in her and call her done (an option I'm not so up to). Until that time, goodbye- and I'm sorry to disappoint.


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